New Mexico State was bound to suffer some growing pains. The Aggies had to replace several key players from last year's club and the first three games on the schedule were certainly the hardest of the season.

The Aggies are 0-3 after an embarrassing 60-13 loss at Utah State on Saturday and they have not been close to a competitive game yet.

Utah State is a better football team than NM State. But are they really 47 points better than the Aggies?

Or is it something else?

"Especially on the offensive side, when we have a bad play or a bad drive or a couple of things go wrong, our guys do not respond to that right now," NM State head coach Doug Martin said. "We have talked to them in practice about it. We had it this week when a couple of bad plays and it turned into 10 more bad plays because they can't flip the switch and go on to the next play.

"We are not playing with a lot of confidence right now."

Aggies are a fragile football team right now

NM State players have played hard for the most part for the entirety of three blowout losses.

Martin wants his team to play more physical, but that's not to say they are soft.

There are certainly improvements the Aggies must address from an Xs and Os perspective, but confidence is an issue.

It does not take much for the Aggies to fold, and that's not a good sign.

NM State hasn't been close going after three quarters yet this season. The Aggies have been outscored 51-6 in the second quarter this season.

There was a similar avalanche in the second quarter on Saturday as Utah State outscored NM State 17-3.

The momentum started to turn on Savon Scarver's 100-yard kickoff return touchdown late in the first quarter. Scarver's return answered a long Aggies touchdown drive. It gave Utah State a 13-7 lead, but it derailed any momentum gained by a promising NM State scoring drive that actually featured the running game that had been absent the prior two weeks.

Trailing 16-10 in the second quarter, Aggies safety Shamad Lomax appeared to have his second interception of the game when he intercepted a Jordan Love heave into the end zone. Love was pressured and forced to run to his right and throw across his body into the end zone, but NM State linebacker Johnathan Hood pushed Love to the ground well after he threw the football.

The penalty moved Utah State to the NM State 14 yard line. Three plays later, Eltoro Allen scored from a yard out to push the Utah State lead to 23-10.

It was still only a two-score game, but it was only the beginning of a Utah State scoring frenzy. Utah State scored 17 points in the final 5:46 for a 33-10 halftime lead. Utah State called off the dogs in the second half after five quarterback sacks in the first half, but they still added a pick-six and two long touchdown runs.

"We played a much more physical game last year," Martin said. "This team is having a hard time handling last year's success. That is just the fact. There is a mentality that we are not playing with that we had before. Until we get that back, we are going to struggle."

Aggies are too easy to prepare for

Poor offensive line play and a first-year starter at quarterback have greatly limited what Martin can do from an offensive play calling standpoint.

"We have had to scale back the offense so far because (quarterback Matt Romero) is learning the offense and because of our offensive line struggles, we are so limited on what we can call right now," said Martin, whose offense has scored 10 points per game to start the season. It's making us really easy to defend."

Utah State had free pass rushers throughout the first half, sacking Romero five times in the first half.

"We have two things that are the perfect recipe for a disaster on offensive football," Martin said. "We are really not communicating up front on the offensive line in pass protection and turning people loose on the quarterback. The second thing is when you have a first-time starter at quarterback getting hit when he's not supposed to. He starts looking down at the pass rush and not up the field."

Martin said Romero also has to be aware prior to the snap. The Aggies used max protection formations on Saturday, but Utah State likewise moved players into coverage against just three receivers in the formation.

"You need your quarterback to be able to check in and out of those protections and we are not able to do that right now as effectively as we need to," Martin said.

Defensive coordinator Frank Spaziani has been likewise forced to limit his defensive scheme. Unlike the offense, however, injuries have forced the Aggies to be more vanilla. Injuries in the front seven, (middle linebacker Javahn Fergurson and weak side linebacker Leon McQuaker did not play on Saturday) have plagued the Aggies and forced Spaziani to dial back the pressure. The Aggies also haven't stopped the run as Utah State rushed for 274 yards on six yards per carry.

The hope with nine returning starters was that the Aggies defense could build on the aggressive nature that carried them to 43 sacks and 27 takeaways last year. Instead the defense has been forced to go back to the drawing board.

Two positives to build on

There were two signs of progress to take from Saturday's blowout loss.

The Aggies showed the potential to run the football. NM State rushed for 109 yards on Saturday, surpassing the season total of 29 yards through the first two games.

The Aggies opened the game in the Pistol formation for the first time this season and it was effective on NM State's lone touchdown scoring drive. The Aggies rushed six times for 31 yards on the 10-play, 75-yard scoring drive.

Jason Hunley finished with 35 yards on 13 carries, Royce Caldwell had 53 yards on nine carries and Christian Gibson had 57 yards on 11 carries in his first action of the season.

Whether or not going over 100 yards on the ground was a fluke or not in a blowout game is unclear. But if the Aggies can't protect the passer, perhaps the running game can add a previously missing dimension to a struggling offense.

"At times, we rant the ball better and we tried to run it more, but you still have to be productive," Martin said. "We were also a little better on third down so that part of things were pretty good."

Defensively, the addition of Cedric Wilcots II to the defensive line allowed the Aggies to pressure the quarterback for the first time all season. Roy Lopez had the first of three Aggies quarterback sacks of the season and pressure on Utah State quarterback Jordan Love led to a Lomax interception, as well as his interception that was called back due to the roughing the passer penalty.

Utah State was still 6 of 16 on third down conversions, but the Aggies showed the ability to pressure the quarterback for the first time this season.

Sports Editor Jason Groves can be reached at 575-541-5459 or jgroves@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on Twitter @jpgroves.